24-year-old charged with shooting four people overnight in Oberlin – Audio

OBERLIN — Four young men were wounded and the man suspected of shooting them is in custody after an argument around 11:30 p.m. Thursday in a parking lot on West College Street, according to police and witnesses.

A deputy talks to men who brought a ballcap with an apparent bullet hole that they said belongs to a victim in Thursday’s shooting on West College Street in Oberlin. Behind the officers is where the shooting occured. (CT photo by Bruce Bishop.)

Woodings

Police Lt. Kevin Scalli described the victims’ wounds as non-life threatening and said the suspected shooter was arrested without incident.

Sean M. Woodings, 24, of Oberlin has been charged with four counts of felonious assault, Lt. Mike McCloskey said Friday afternoon.

Identities of the victims have not been released, but McCloskey said they are ages 17, 22, 23 and 26.

All of the victims have been treated and released, according to McCloskey.

McCloskey said the victims’ injuries included a grazing wound to the head (the 22-year-old), a wound to the arm (the 26-year-old) and wounds to lower extremities (the 17- and 23-year-old.)

Adam Zelis, a witness and friend of one of the victims, said his friend was grazed in the head, with the bullet making a hole in the man’s baseball cap.

Zelis said another man was shot in the foot, another was shot in the leg and the other was shot in the elbow in the lot between 533 and 549 West College St.

Zelis said he and the men who were wounded were in an apartment at 526 W. College St. across the street from where the shooting occurred. He said the men who were shot went across the street to confront the suspected shooter about derogatory remarks one of the victims had said the suspect had made about the victim’s grandmother.

Zelis, who had stayed behind, said he looked out the apartment window and saw the suspect come out of a home and begin firing a pistol. Zelis said he could see muzzle flashes.

“There was at least seven or eight shots that went off,” Zelis said. “Everybody was scooting, and people were dropping.”

Zelis said the four victims ran back to the apartment.

An approximately 4-by-2-inch spot of blood was outside the apartment complex.

According to McCloskey, a 9 mm handgun and eight spent shell casings were recovered at the scene.

Neighbor Greg Thomas, who lives in the apartment complex, said he was surprised by the violence.

“This is Oberlin. That’s not supposed to happen,” Thomas said. “It’s the last thing I would’ve expected.”

Woodings was arraigned this morning in Oberlin Municipal Court, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a personal bond of $5,000 was set.

According to the prosecutor, each of the alleged victims has a significant criminal history, including crimes of violence. The Oberlin Municipal Court docket states that Woodings was at his home, and it appeared that the alleged victims were trespassing and that at least one of the victims was told not to be at his home.

Woodings was in the process of obtaining a Civil Protection Order against one of the victims before the shooting, according to court documents.

Woodings’ written statement said he was prompted to use his gun before he was harmed by one of the alleged victims.